"Jesus claimed He had the power to raise himself from the dead and His followers would be raised from the dead. That's a unique claim in the literature of religion"
About this Quote
The intent is strategic: if the claim is truly singular, then you can’t casually assimilate Jesus into a general roster of moral teachers or enlightened gurus. McDowell’s phrasing also sneaks in a second escalation: not only does Jesus rise, but his followers will, too. That’s a promise of mass participation, not a one-off miracle, and it raises the stakes from a biography to a worldview about history, bodies, and justice.
There’s subtext aimed at modern skepticism. "Claimed" keeps a veneer of restraint, but the sentence quietly dares the reader: either Jesus was right, or the central assertion is fantastical in a way that can’t be softened into metaphor. Contextually, this comes from a late-20th-century evangelical ecosystem preoccupied with evidence, courtroom-style argument, and the idea that Christianity wins by being testable. Uniqueness here isn’t just trivia; it’s a lever meant to pry the reader out of comfortable religious relativism.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
McDowell, Josh. (2026, January 16). Jesus claimed He had the power to raise himself from the dead and His followers would be raised from the dead. That's a unique claim in the literature of religion. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/jesus-claimed-he-had-the-power-to-raise-himself-129694/
Chicago Style
McDowell, Josh. "Jesus claimed He had the power to raise himself from the dead and His followers would be raised from the dead. That's a unique claim in the literature of religion." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/jesus-claimed-he-had-the-power-to-raise-himself-129694/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Jesus claimed He had the power to raise himself from the dead and His followers would be raised from the dead. That's a unique claim in the literature of religion." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/jesus-claimed-he-had-the-power-to-raise-himself-129694/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
